Apparatus for separating segments of an orange



United States Patent Inventor Yonekichi Morikawa Shimizu, Japan Appl. No. 754,363

Filed Aug. 21, 1968 Patented Dec. 1, 1970 Assignee Daiwa Can Co. Ltd.

Tokyo, Japan APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING SEGMENTS OF AN ORANGE 8 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 146/3, 146/236 Int. Cl A23n 15/00 Field of Search 146/314, 236

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,081,805 3/1963 Shrewsbury 146/3(. 14) 3,351,113 11/1967 Suzuki etal. l46/3(.14) 3,415,298 12/1968 lshibashi l46/3(.14)

Primary ExaminerWi1lie G. Abercrombie Attorney-Watson, Leavenworth & Kelton ABSTRACT: The disclosed apparatus for separating segments of an orange automatically separates the segments by liquid ejected from nozzles perpendicular or oblique to the orangestalk axis and toward the connecting portion of the segments in rotating a peeled orange at its stalk axis in water.

Patented Dec. 1, 1970 Sheet Patented Dec. 1, 1970 Sheet Patented Dec. 1, 1970 Sheet APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING SEGMENTS OF AN ORANGE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to the apparatus for separating the segments ofan orange.

2. Description of the Prior Art Heretofore, the operation of separating the segments of the orange has been manually done in manufacturing canned oranges. Such manual operation requires a great amount of labor, which is an expensive and therefore unnecessarily inefficient operation. This limits better manufacturing of the canned oranges. There are known methods of separating the segments of the orange which involve ejecting fluid in a filmstate into the space between the segments of a peeled orange and separating the segments by utilizing the fluid pressure thereof. This method effects much better efficiency than the manual operation, but it has some disadvantages as follows:

Since the orange or the like is juicy and soft in its sarcocarp it is easy to break during the mechanical operation. While the orange mounted in the apparatus rotates in receiving the filmshaped jet of water around the orange, since the gaps between the segments of the orange are much narrower than the outer surface of the segments, the time that the direction of the jet matches the gaps is far shorter than that in which the jet strikes on the outer surface of the segments, resulting that the effective duration of the jet for separating the segments is not only very short, but the ineffective period therefor is much longer, and further during this ineffective time the jet tends to break large amount of the sarcocarp thereof.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention eliminates the aforementioned disadvantages of the conventional operation for separating the segments of the orange or the like and provides a novel and improved apparatus for separating the segments of the orange or the like, which have high efficiency of the operation therefor and which minimize the breakage of the segments in operation.

This invention provides an apparatus for separating automatically and sanitarily the segments of an orange or the like which comprise means for directing a film-shaped jet stream of water perpendicular or oblique to the orange-stalk axis of peeled oranges supported and driven by a chain and a pair of wheels in rotating therealongwith so as not to break them.

Briefly, the present apparatus comprises a plurality of rotatable upper saucers, a plurality of rotatable lower saucers, devices for supporting peeled oranges resiliently between the upper and lower saucers by means of the pressure of an elastic elements such as spring, a plurality ofjet nozzles for ejecting a film-shaped jet of water, said nozzles being long in length and short in width and mounted horizontally at the same level as that between the oranges supported between the upper and lower saucer and perpendicular or oblique to the axis of the saucers, and spaced suitable from the outer peripheries of the oranges, and a wall being open at the nozzle side and larger in height than that of the orange and being arcuate in horizontal section in shape, said well movably mounted in elevation relative to the upper saucers. One upper and lower saucer disposed at the same vertical axis of its center shaft form one set, and they revolve integrally along with the chain. The upper saucer is adapted to move in elevation toward and away from the lower saucer at a predetermined location.

Therefore, one object of the' present invention is to provide an apparatus for separating automatically and sanitarily the segments of oranges or the like.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for separating the segments of the orange economically so as not to break the sarcocarp of oranges.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide apparatus for separating the segments of oranges or the like with high efficiency.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will further become apparent hereinafter, and from the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of an overall of this apparatus embodying the present invention showing the main components thereof;

FIG. 2 is a sectional side view taken as indicated by the lines and arrows A-A shown in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 (A, B, C and D) are side views of a supporting device of an orange or the like showing sequentially the steps of its operations; and

FIG. 4 is a plan view of an aspect of this invention showing the stream of the pressurized water or jet in the orange-supporting device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERRED EMBODIMENTS Although specific forms of the invention have been selected for illustration in the drawings, and the following description is drawn in specific terms for the purpose of describing those forms of the invention, which is defined in the claims.

Referring to the drawings, and particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, an apparatus for separating the segments of oranges is shown.

The apparatus comprises endless chains 1, 1', driving wheels 2, 2' for the chains, fruit-supporting devices 3 mounted vertically to every link of the chains 1, l, a water tank 6, jet nozzles 11, or l2, l2 cam guides 4 for lowering the fruit-supporting device, the supporting device having an upper funnelshaped saucer 5 and a lower saucer 5', pinions 7, 8, for rotating the upper and lower saucers 5, 5 respectively, racks 9, 10 for meshing with the pinions 7, 8, respectively, cam guides 14 for lifting the upper saucer, cam guides 15 for picking up the orange-supporting device as a whole from the water, and cam guides 16 for maintaining the supporting devices lifted up from under water at a certain level. Reference numeral 13 designates water streams or jets for feeding out the separated segments of the oranges. The tank 6 is rectangular as shown in FIG. 1 and the fruit-supporting devices are adapted to be performed by the endless chains 1, 1. However, the tank 6 may be circular and the supporting devices may be moved circularly so that instead of the endless chains 1, l and driving wheels 2, 2, the devices may be driven by a pair of gears intermeshing each other.

Referring now to FIG. 2, it shows a mechanism for moving vertically the fruit-supporting devices in a side view.

There are provided slide guide bars 17 fixed to and revolving along with the chains 1, 1' at the upper and lower portions thereof in the mechanism, to which outer slide guide bars 23 are integrally secured. Slides 18, 24 are slidably secured to the slide guide bars 17, 23, respectively. Cam rolls 20, 26 are secured to the slides I8, 24, respectively; and movable operating rods 19, 25 are also vertically secured to the slides 18, 24, respectively. The cam rolls 20 are engaged with the cam guides 4, 15 so that they are adapted to move the whole orange-supporting devices vertically, and the cam rolls 26 are engaged with the cam guides 14 and 16, so that they are adapted to move the upper saucers 5 vertically.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 3A, in the area a the fruit or orange-supporting devices 3 are disposed above the water and the upper and lower saucers 5, 5' are spaced sufficiently enough for the peeled orange to be inserted therebetween. In this area the oranges 34 are put on the lower saucers 5'.

Referring now to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3B, in the area b, the cam,

rolls 26 are removed from the cam guides 16 so that the upper saucers 5 fall down by the tension of a spring 30 and the oranges 34 are supported between the upper and lower saucers 5, 5'. Thereafter, the orange-supporting devices drop as a whole so that the upper and lower saucers 5, 5' are put into the water in the tank 6.

As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3C, in the area 0, the orangesupporting devices are driven forwards in the state to be disposed at the lowermost position as the last in the area b together with the orange 34 put between the upper and lower saucers 5, 5 in rotating, and the segments of the oranges are separated by the jet stream 13 ejected from the-nozzles 11.

In FIGS. 1 and 3D, in the area d, the upper saucers 5 are lifted up, the separated segments are flowed together with the water stream out of the tank 6. sequentially, the orange-supporting devices are lifted as a whole up so as to return the initial state in the area a (FIG. 3A).

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 4, in the orange-supporting device U-shaped arms 21 for supporting the upper and lower saucers 5, 5' separately are fixed to the lower portion of the rod 19 on the same vertical line. An idle wheel 22 (FIG. 2) is rotatably secured to the lowermost end of the rod 19. The upper and lower saucers 5, 5' have openings 29, 29, respectively for minimizing the resistance in moving in the water. The upper and lower saucers 5, 5' are fixed to the shafts 28, 28', respectively, which are rotatably secured to the respective upper and lower arms of the U-shaped arms 21. The spring 30 is provided between the upper saucers 5 and a lateral arm part of the U-shaped arm 21 so as to support resiliently the orange 34 between the upper and lower saucers 5,5.

In FIG. 2, at the uppermost of the shaft 28 there is provided a stop claw 31 which is adapted to be supported through an arm 32 fixed to the rod 25. To the shafts 28, 28' of the upper and lower saucers 5, 5' are fixedly secured pinions 7, 8, respectively with which the racks 9, are meshed in the water tank 6 for driving the upper and lower saucers 5, 5', which racks are secured to thetank. In order for the pinions to be assumed to mesh with the racks, a rail 33 may be preferably fixed on the bottom of the tank 6 to which rail the idle wheel 22 rotatably secured to the lowermost end of the rod 19 may be contacted.

In the embodiment as shown in FIG. 2, there are provided with the pinion 8 for rotating the lower saucer 5 and the rack 10 meshed therewith, but they may be omitted.

From such a mechanismfor moving the orange-supporting devices as was described hereinbefore, when the cam rolls 26 are removed from the cam guide 16 the rods 25 fall down so that the orange put between the upper and lower saucers 5, 5 supported by only the pressure of the spring 30 and are moved forwards along with the chains in rotating itself in the state that they are supported.

A number of nozzles 11 are spaced and disposed at the opposite side of the rods 19 against the fruit or orange so as not to interfere and to weaken the jet streams each other and so as not to weaken the jet pressure each other. However, these nozzles 11 may be disposed such that the jets are ejected from upper and lower oblique direction as designated by the numerals 12, 12 in FIGS. 2 and 3C.

In accordance with the present invention, after the peeled oranges are put on the lower saucers 5' as shown in FIG. 3A in the area a in FIG. 1, the oranges are automatically supported between the upper and lower saucers 5, S to be brought into the water, the segments thereof are separated by the jet ejected from the nozzles 11 during the revolution along with the chains in rotating itself as shown in FIGS. 38 and 3C, the segments of the orange are released from the supporting devices as shown in FIG. 3D and are then flowed out of the tank by the water stream.

Referring now to FIGS. 3A, 3B and 4, in order to completely separate the segments of the oranges in high efficiency or in short time a C-shaped frame 27 opened at the nozzle side may be provided. The frame 27 is fixed to the lowermost end of the rod 25. As shown on the right part in FIG. 2, when the supporting device is disposed in the area 0, since the rod 25 is raised, the frame 27 is disposed at the same level of the upper saucer 5 or higher level thereof. In the area b, since the rod 25 is released from the cam guide 26 so that it falls down, the

frame 27 is also lowered integrally together with the rod 25 at the lower most end by stopping the rod through the arm 32 secured to the rod 25 and the shaft 28 so that the frame 27 is disposed so as to cover the space between the upper and lower saucers 5, 5'. After the segments of the oranges are separated the frame 27 is lifted integrally with the upper saucer 5. This frame 27 increases the efficiency of the separation of the segments of the orange by means 0 the ret stream. Although the the following claims.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for separating the segments of oranges or the like comprising supporting devices for the oranges, each device including an upper and a lower saucer for supporting the oranges therebetween, apparatus for moving said supporting devices horizontally, the oranges being held in said devices with their axes directed vertically, cam mechanism for moving said supporting devices vertically, another cam mechanism for revolving the upper saucer of each supporting device, and nozzles for directing a film-shaped jet stream of water against the oranges in directions generally perpendicular and oblique to the axes of the oranges.

2. An apparatus for separating the segments of oranges or the like as set forth in claim 1 wherein the upper and lower saucers are funnel-shaped and include a plurality of openings in their peripheral walls.

3. An apparatus for separating the segments of oranges or the like as set forth in claim I wherein the supporting devices are resiliently supported on a spring.

4. An apparatus for separating the segments of oranges or the like as set forth in claim 1 wherein the driving apparatus for moving horizontally said supporting devices comprises an endless chain.

5. An apparatus for separating the segments of oranges or the like as set forth in claim 1 wherein a gear drivesystem is used for the driving apparatus for moving horizontally said supporting devices.

6. An apparatus for separating the segments of oranges or the like as set forth in claim 1 wherein said apparatus includes a tank for water, said cam mechanism for moving vertically said supporting devices comprising a cam guide for raising up said supporting devices from below the level of water in said tank, and another cam guide for maintaining the devices in a raised-up position, and a cam roll rotatably mounted to the last-mentioned cam guide for lowering the supporting devices back below the water in said tank.

7. An apparatus for separating the segments of oranges or the like as set forth in claim 1 wherein said cam mechanism for vertically moving the upper saucer comprises a cam guide for lifting up the upper saucer from a fruit-supporting position, a cam guide for lifting said upper saucer in response to the lifting of the supporting devices, a cam guide for maintaining it at the raised position, and a cam roll rotatably mounted to the rod of the upper saucer.

8. An apparatus for separating the segments of oranges or the like as set forth in claim 1 further including a cylindrical frame being open at the nozzle side and supported around the fruits. 

